BWCA Entry Point, Route, and Trip Report Blog

March 19 2018

Sawbill Lake entry point allows overnight paddle only. This entry point is supported by Tofte Ranger Station near the city of Tofte, MN. The distance from ranger station to entry point is 25 miles. Access is a boat landing at Sawbill Lake. This area was affected by blowdown in 1999.

Smoke Lake 2010

Just my wife and I headed to the Beautiful BWCA for some fishing and getaway time.

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We had a wonderful trip to Smoke Lake. The weather was good and the fishing was good. We entered at Sawbill Lake and had a short paddle up to the portage point to Smoke Lake. The portage is not too bad, fairly level. One hundred rods is about as much as I want to do in one hot carrying my aluminum canoe. With the high pressure and sunny weather, the fishing was better than I expected. We caught more than we could eat and even practiced a little catch and release. We caught mostly walleyes as that is what we target, but caught a fair amount of smallies as well. We saw both a cow and bull moose on Saturday, which was a first for my wife. On Sunday morning at about 6:30 we were woken up by a moose that came up to the back of our tent. That was a little scary, but we stayed quiet and eventually it went away. The video you have to watch at the Forest Service station always talks about a bear, but they don't mention what to do if a moose comes in to camp. I recommend this lake for an easy little fishing spot.

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